Lacing-hook for boots and shoes



M. BRAY' Lac ing-Ho'ok for Boots and Shoes.

0. 228,510. v afiemad June s, 3880.

Witnesses Inventor: 619 56 fi/ by ,Gzmfi dd .flttorlzey.

NPEYERS, PHOTGLITHOGRAPHER, WASHlNGTQN, D C.

UNrrs Arena Prion.

MELLEN EBAY, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LAClNG-HOOK FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 228,510, dated June 8, 1880.

Application filed December 15, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELLEN BRAY, of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lacing Hooks for Boots and Shoes, of whichthefollowing, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

Hook-headed studs to receive the strings for lacing boots and shoes have become very generally used, and while the lacing-stud patented to Alfred Dawes, March 27, A D. 1874, is being generally adopted forfirst-class work and gives good satisfaction, there is still a want of a cheaper lace-hook for use upon a cheaper class of goods.

Many attempts have been made to produce such cheap hooks with indifferent success, only one having sufficient merit to cause it to be used to any considerable extent, so far as my knowledge extends, and that being made from a single piece of thin sheet metal, including the shank for attaching it to the shoe, which is a simple open-ended eyelet, the attachment to the shoe is not as strong as it should be, owing to the liability of the shank to cripple in the act of setting, and as they must of ne cessity be made of brass or'some more ductile metal than iron, and even then the metal has to be annealed several times during the operation of forming the stud or lace-hook, they cannot be manufactured at as low a figure as would be desirable for the class of work upon which they are used.

To overcome these difficulties and obj ections, and produce a better stud at less cost than the best cheap studs now in use, is the object of my present invention; and it consists in the construction of a lace hook or stud in two pieces, the first composed of two collars or disks connected at one side by anick to receive the lacing-string, with a hole through the center of one of said disks, and the second a tubular rivet having a closed headed end and its shank end inserted through the hole in said disk, and secured therein by a pin or lip thrown out therefrom beneath said disk, and adapted to serve as a means of attaching the hook to the shoe.

Figure 1 of the drawings is aside elevation of a lace-hook embodying my invention. Fig.

2 is a horizontal section on line 1 1 on Fig. l. I Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 2 2 on Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a similar section of the hook after being set in a shoe or other piece of material. Fig. 5 is a plan of the blank from which the hook-head is to be formed. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of said blank. Figs. 7 and 8 are, respectively, an elevation and a vertical section of a rivet having a hollow or tubular shank and a closed head. Figs. 9 and 10 are, respectively, an inverted plan and a longitudinal section of the head-blank and the tubular rivet inserted therein. Figs. 11 and 12 are, respectively, a horizontal section and a vertical section of a modified form of my lacing-hook. Figs. 13 and 14 are, respectively, a plan and a longitudinal section of the blank from which the head of the modified hook is to be formed.

In constructing my improved lacing-hook I first die out a blank of suitable outline from sheet metal, or cut from a wire a blank of suit able length, and then swage the blank in dies or by a drop-press to the form substantiallyas shown in Figs. 5 and 6 or the blanks may be rolled to shape from a wire in a continuous line, and then be cut apart and died to shape. I then insert the tubular shank a of the rivet shown in Figs. 7 and 8 in the hole I), formed in one end of the swaged blank A, and upset said tubular shank by means of suitable tools, to throw outward therefrom a slight'annular bead or fin, c, beneath the blank A,to securely unite the two parts together, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10, when the blank A is bent into the shape shown in Fig. 1, completing the lacehook ready for insertion in the shoe or other article, as shown in Fig. 4, said hook having a neck, (I, to receive the lacing-string, oval in cross-section, or having its edges rounded, as shown in Fig. 2, so as to present no sharp corners to cut the string.

In Figs. 11 and 12 is illustrated a modified form of the hook, in which the two disks and the connecting-neck are of even thickness, no swagin g being required upon the plain blank, except to make that portion of said blank which is to form the outer disk concavo-convex, as shown at c, Fig. 12.

These lace-hooks can be made of soft iron without annealing, and as a consequence can IOO be produced at a less cost than if made of brass, and will obviate most of the objections to the cheaper lace'hooks. now in use, as follows, viz: In order to draw the eyelet on the end of the blank, in the construction of the cheaper studs or hooks heretofore referred to, a ductile metal has to be used, and as the necessary annealing cannot be applied to a part of the blank without affecting the whole, it follows that the neck to receive the string is very soft when the hook is completed, which, taken together with the fact that said neck is quite thin in the direction in which the strain is applied, renders the hook very liable to straighten out when the strain is applied, or the head or outer disk is very liable to be jammed down upon the under disk by any considerable pressure applied to its upper surface on account of the extreme pliability of the soft metal of the neck.

Another objection to the use of brass is that the verdigris thrown off or generated by the brass rots or injures the leather, and when the japanning' is worn off the appearance of the brass head is more objectionable than an iron one under similar conditions. These objections are all overcome, or at least reduced to a minimum, by the use of my improved lacinghook.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

In a lacing-hook, a hook-head composed of two disks united by a neck located eccentric ally thereto, in combination with a tubular rivet secured to one of said disks by its head upon one side of said disk and the tin 0 upon the other side, substantially as and for the purposes described.

Executed at Boston, Massachusetts, this 13th day o'tDeccmber, A. D. 1879.

MELLIJN BRAY. Witnesses E. A. HEMMENWAY, \VALTER E. LOMBARD. 

